Internet Explorer still growing as Windows 7 starts its decline

Windows 8's growth is underwhelming, except among gamers.

In the first month of 2013, Internet Explorer's desktop market share is continuing to slowly climb upwards, with Firefox consolidating its number two spot. There are signs that Windows 7 may have peaked as Windows 8 is slowly picking up users.

January was a good month for Microsoft's browser, up 0.37 points to 55.14 percent. Firefox also grew, up 0.12 points to 19.94 percent. Chrome fell, down 0.56 points to 17.48 percent. Safari was unchanged at 5.24 percent, and Opera was up a hair, gaining 0.04 points to reach 1.75 percent.

The improvement of Internet Explorer's position masks a story that's decidedly mixed for Microsoft. Windows 7 fell for the first time in January, dropping 0.63 points from a high of 45.11 percent to 44.48 percent. Windows 8's slow growth is continuing, up 0.54 points from 1.72 percent to 2.26 percent. There's also a small number of tablet users, with 0.08 percent on Windows 8 Touch and a minuscule 0.02 percent on Windows RT Touch.

Taken together, the growth by the Windows 8 family seems to be covering the losses Windows 7 has incurred, but that's surprisingly weak. With corporations still migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7—a process that should continue even in spite of Windows 8's release—one would expect Windows 7 and 8 to both be growing.

There are, however, signs that Windows 8 is catching on, at least in some audiences. Valve's latest hardware survey results are out, with Windows 8 up 1.83 points in January, to a total of 8.76 percent (overwhelmingly favoring the 64-bit version). The Valve hardware survey arguably represents the enthusiast segment of the market; virtually all hardcore gamers are using Steam (though Steam also has plenty of non-hardcore games), but it appears that at least that group is happy to make the switch.

The news in mobile is more unambiguously improved for Microsoft. Unsurprisingly, Safari remains totally dominant, up 0.46 points to 61.02 percent. Android has a firm hold on second place, down 0.64 points to 21.46 percent. The surprise story is Internet Explorer; after languishing below 1 percent for years, it has posted relatively strong gains for the last couple of months, in January picking up 0.18 points for a total of 1.34 percent. Windows 8 may be struggling to win hearts and minds in the tablet space, but Windows Phone seems to have turned a corner.

The Chrome and Firefox automatic updaters remain as solid as ever. Over the last year a familiar pattern has emerged: while almost everyone is updated by Chrome's installer, each new version of Firefox is leaving some users behind, and those users are sticking with their old browser versions for a prolonged period. It's not clear why this is the case; although the Firefox updater was initially problematic, nowadays it's pretty solid and effective. The users of the very old versions are susceptible to all manner of security flaws; it is perhaps only their relative obscurity keeping them safe.

Just as January saw Windows 7's first decline, so too did it see Internet Explorer 9's first decline. Similarly, just as the Windows 8 gains offset the Windows 7 losses, the Internet Explorer 10 gains are offsetting the Internet Explorer 9 losses. Internet Explorer 10 usage is still less than half of the level of Windows 8 usage, however, indicating that a majority of Windows 8 users simply aren't interested in Redmond's browser. The release of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 isn't too far off; this should see greater uptake of Microsoft's latest and greatest browser.

The up tick in Steam W8 usage is almost certainly tied to new purchases and Steam's expanding market, not that gamers are embracing W8.

W8 is mostly held with disdain by the gaming community in particular when compared to the success of W7. The attempt to lock down purchases has only made the gaming community less open to switching to W8 without mentioning the miserable experience the UI offers. New casual gamers have no preexisting attitudes and are thus able to exist on W8 as they do not know better. :-/

A side comment is why would anybody get the 32bit version? There is nothing sold today that would require it nor a situation where it could be better. If it costs less than buying it is just a false economy as the hardware is 64bit.

A side comment is why would anybody get the 32bit version? There is nothing sold today that would require it nor a situation where it could be better. If it costs less than buying it is just a false economy as the hardware is 64bit.

Some older devices, or equipment that interfaces with a PC, doesn't support 64bit Windows.

A side comment is why would anybody get the 32bit version? There is nothing sold today that would require it nor a situation where it could be better. If it costs less than buying it is just a false economy as the hardware is 64bit.

My Samsung ATIV 500T came with 32bit Windows 8. It's only got 2GB of memory, with no way to expand it. There's no real point to having a 64bit OS on it. I suspect that's what most of the 32bit installs of Windows 8 are-- tablets.

I'm a gamer using Windows 8 (probably in those steam hardware results), but "happy to switch" isn't really the right word for me. It's more like "Thought I'd give it a try", "disappointed", and "now I'm stuck with this piece of software I can't return."

I'm a gamer. I have my main rig runnign Windows 7 and am using a Windows 8 installation via RDP on a secondary machine.

I hate Windows 8. It is the most godawful clunky OS to use remotely. The metro interface is jarring and intrusive. On my Windows 7 rig, I run 15+ applications at once. Currently I have 8 browser windows with hundreds of tabs open on one monitor overlapping multiple instant messenger programs with quite a few conversations open, three remote desktop sessions...

...and Minecraft fullscreen on my other monitor.

Remotely using Windows 8 is an absolute pain. The metro start menu completely and utterly interrupts what I'm doing. The button to get to it is difficult to access. I forget what the way to send Super (your Windows key) to a RDP session is, but seriously, I shouldn't need my freaking Windows key to intuitively navigate an RDP session.

My Windows 8 rig is running a Tekkit server and multiple Virtualbox machines. The under-the-hood improvements are great. It'll make an excellent easy-to-configure server machine that I never have to look at.

Exactly. I hate this. What should be done is to compare the different sources. I'm not implying that this is biased, but according to the figures it is suspcious that, for example Wikimedia (Wikipedia and related sites) obtained different results in October.

I made a switch to Win8 for both my desktops and I really dont notice any deficiencies with it compared to Win7. Learning hotkeys really does make things easier. Of course the real reason I upgraded was because of the cheap upgrade price. I'm curious how many other gamers did the same. Still though I have no problems with it and don't regret the switch at all. The under the hood stuff is just a bonus.

I would think we wouldn't see the first decline in win7 for some time yet if the upgrade to win8 was more expensive, or they still sold windows 7. People are pretty much being forced to get windows 8.

I understand that the upgrade to win8 is now indeed more expensive. But that is very recent. I also understand that there are yet ways to get win7, but not for the average joe. I also understand they could get linux or an apple pc, but they wont because it is too hard to too expensive, and they choose windows because they think it will be familiar.

A side comment is why would anybody get the 32bit version? There is nothing sold today that would require it nor a situation where it could be better. If it costs less than buying it is just a false economy as the hardware is 64bit.

My Samsung ATIV 500T came with 32bit Windows 8. It's only got 2GB of memory, with no way to expand it. There's no real point to having a 64bit OS on it. I suspect that's what most of the 32bit installs of Windows 8 are-- tablets.

The real reason that your 500T is 32bit is that for some reason Connected Standby is not supported by 64bit Windows 8 at this time.

The Chrome and Firefox automatic updaters remain as solid as ever. Over the last year a familiar pattern has emerged: while almost everyone is updated by Chrome's installer, each new version of Firefox is leaving some users behind, and those users are sticking with their old browser versions for a prolonged period. Why this should be isn't clear; although the Firefox updater was initially problematic, nowadays it's pretty solid and effective. The users of the very old versions are susceptible to all manner of security flaws; it is perhaps only their relative obscurity keeping them safe.

I'm assuming that a lot of gamers, like myself, mostly upgraded because doing so before the end of last month was cheap enough to make doing so worth the time and trouble. Now, I like Windows 8, but I don't like the full Windows 8. I know a lot of my friends do the very same. We all boot directly into the desktop, all keep the hotcorner crap disabled, and basically run Windows 8 as Windows 7+.

I'm a gamer. I have my main rig runnign Windows 7 and am using a Windows 8 installation via RDP on a secondary machine.

I hate Windows 8. It is the most godawful clunky OS to use remotely. The metro interface is jarring and intrusive. On my Windows 7 rig, I run 15+ applications at once. Currently I have 8 browser windows with hundreds of tabs open on one monitor overlapping multiple instant messenger programs with quite a few conversations open, three remote desktop sessions...

...and Minecraft fullscreen on my other monitor.

Remotely using Windows 8 is an absolute pain. The metro start menu completely and utterly interrupts what I'm doing. The button to get to it is difficult to access. I forget what the way to send Super (your Windows key) to a RDP session is, but seriously, I shouldn't need my freaking Windows key to intuitively navigate an RDP session.

My Windows 8 rig is running a Tekkit server and multiple Virtualbox machines. The under-the-hood improvements are great. It'll make an excellent easy-to-configure server machine that I never have to look at.

Windows 8 might have a great body, but its face is paper bag worthy.

Not being able to use the windows key is going to slow you down a fair bit regardless of the OS version, there's so many useful shortcuts that use it...

In any case, a fullscreen RDP window with focus will capture the windows key.

Exactly. I hate this. What should be done is to compare the different sources. I'm not implying that this is biased, but according to the figures it is suspcious that, for example Wikimedia (Wikipedia and related sites) obtained different results in October.

I don't recall if it's ever been written about in an article; but this question's asked and answered in the comments every single month. W3Counter is just a count of traffic to w3schools.com; which makes it a good measure of what's being used by web developers but otherwise useless for drawing larger trends. The main difference I'm aware of between StatsCounter (wikipedia's preferred source) and and NetApplications (ArsTechica's preferred source) is that StatsCounter reports are raw numbers from the sites they monitor, while NetApplications normalizes it's numbers based on external statistics on national useage levels.

ex if they saw traffic from China as 10% of their total, but Chinese are 20% of the total number of people on the web they'd double Chinese numbers for each browser measured when creating their global totals. IE6's long shadow in China as the default browser used with widely sold WarezdowsXP disks (IE6 countdown has it as still having >21% of the Chinese browser market) is a major factor in the differences between them. IIRC seeing analysis elsewhere showing IE of all versions having significantly larger shares of the market in China and other Asian countries than in the US/Europe; but I don't recall where I read that to offer a link.

Another possible factor in differentiation between the two would be how they handle Chrome's downloading linked pages in the background so they load faster if you do click the link. I suspect that Stats Counter doesn't do anything about it, and that Net Applications does adjust their numbers with the intend of preventing that from inflating Chrome's share; but I haven't seen any official statement from either company on the issue.

I'm a gamer. I have my main rig runnign Windows 7 and am using a Windows 8 installation via RDP on a secondary machine.

I hate Windows 8. It is the most godawful clunky OS to use remotely. The metro interface is jarring and intrusive. On my Windows 7 rig, I run 15+ applications at once. Currently I have 8 browser windows with hundreds of tabs open on one monitor overlapping multiple instant messenger programs with quite a few conversations open, three remote desktop sessions...

...and Minecraft fullscreen on my other monitor.

Remotely using Windows 8 is an absolute pain. The metro start menu completely and utterly interrupts what I'm doing. The button to get to it is difficult to access. I forget what the way to send Super (your Windows key) to a RDP session is, but seriously, I shouldn't need my freaking Windows key to intuitively navigate an RDP session.

My Windows 8 rig is running a Tekkit server and multiple Virtualbox machines. The under-the-hood improvements are great. It'll make an excellent easy-to-configure server machine that I never have to look at.

Windows 8 might have a great body, but its face is paper bag worthy.

Not being able to use the windows key is going to slow you down a fair bit regardless of the OS version, there's so many useful shortcuts that use it...

In any case, a fullscreen RDP window with focus will capture the windows key.

It's called windows for a reason. running everything in fullscreen is terrible for humans as our attention and memory work very badly with that kind of switching. Having two thing next to each other and visible is much better. So the whole idea behind metro with a single program at the time is absurd. Ms can spew whatever crap they want but reality does not change to fit their PR plans.

The main difference I'm aware of between StatsCounter (wikipedia's preferred source) and and NetApplications (ArsTechica's preferred source) is that StatsCounter reports are raw numbers from the sites they monitor, while NetApplications normalizes it's numbers based on external statistics on national useage levels.

Wikimedia uses its own counter, it doesn't depend on StatsCounter (but it mentions its stats, also NetApplications,...). It's interesting what you say about national levels, because most counters agree that in USA, IE is clearly dominant, but it is in worldwide stats where they disagree.

The main difference I'm aware of between StatsCounter (wikipedia's preferred source) and and NetApplications (ArsTechica's preferred source) is that StatsCounter reports are raw numbers from the sites they monitor, while NetApplications normalizes it's numbers based on external statistics on national useage levels.

Wikimedia uses its own counter, it doesn't depend on StatsCounter (but it mentions its stats, also NetApplications,...). It's interesting what you say about national levels, because most counters agree that in USA, IE is clearly dominant, but it is in worldwide stats where they disagree.

3 of the 4 graphs on the first half of the page show data from StatsCounter (the 4th is wikimedia); and the November/December tables show N/A for Wikimedia numbers. Based on those observations it appears that they are deprecating their internal stats in favor of external ones.

The problem with Firefox really, and why its version adoption is far slower than say, Chrome is simple.

Mozilla keeps F*(&@#)(*&% with the UI EVERY RELEASE. Every update to Firefox (every 6 weeks) brings dread to what Mozilla decided to change. Let's ignore massive changes like getting rid of the status bar and concentrate on the little ones. Like how the awesomebar decided its autocomplete will only do domains now, and not the full URL. For those of us who commonly access "deep links" or even sites where we have to use a nonstandard port, this behavior is infuriating, because instead of autocompleting the full URL, it just autocompletes the domain and you have to hit Down to get the full URL. If it pops up in time. Oh, and there's no way to change it to the old behavior.

Chrome - it's UI behavior has tended to be fairly static, so you not only don't care about the version, it's transparent. Chrome today feels like it did yesterday, despite the new version coming out.

Basically - the Mozilla folks keep breaking stuff - be it extensions or UI that people have gotten used to, turning each new release into something people dread and put off as long as possible. Google tends to keep things the same so you not only don't care about the version, it really Just Works.

It's also why IE is popular - it can go between "traditional IE look" and "newfangled let's-emulate-Chrome look" for those who prefer both the old and new.

If there's anything to take away - Mozilla - if you're going to screw up some UI thing, make it an option that defaults "off" for upgraders and "on" for new installs.

I use firefox - preferring it over Chrome. But I'm also infuriated by all the little UI tweaks they pull because it breaks muscle memory and all that. And that's why firefox updates are generally despised, while Chrome updates just happen to be ignored.

It's called windows for a reason. running everything in fullscreen is terrible for humans as our attention and memory work very badly with that kind of switching. Having two thing next to each other and visible is much better. So the whole idea behind metro with a single program at the time is absurd. Ms can spew whatever crap they want but reality does not change to fit their PR plans.

I don't get your point.

There's normal desktop in Windows 8, and you can have as many windows as you like open on the desktop. And even in desktop mode I use full screen quite often. Taskbar tweaks for multi-monitor support are quite useful.

Metro on the other hand (I wish I could remember the "proper" name) has been designed with touch devices in mind, but even on my non touch setup at home I prefer using it for casual stuff. Many websites I frequent have Metro apps that present their content in a cleaner and (for me at least) more aesthetic manner. I switch between them as I would switch tabs in a browser - I don't look at multiple websites at a time. And my experience with Metro on non touch setup (almost a full year now) is way better than my (limited) experience with Windows 7 on a touch device.

And I even find it quite useful that I can have a Metro app snapped to the side of my desktop as whatever I do when rearranging or switching windows on desktop doesn't affect the snapped app. So that's another added benefit over Windows 7 desktop.

b) Some intranet applications in large companies were programmed for IE6 exclusively, and in the current financial climate, they're not in a mood to upgrade them. This causes "fun" for IT admins, I can assure you. I was supporting IE6 up until two years ago for this reason, before moving on to a company that has a clue.

The up tick in Steam W8 usage is almost certainly tied to new purchases and Steam's expanding market, not that gamers are embracing W8.

W8 is mostly held with disdain by the gaming community in particular when compared to the success of W7. The attempt to lock down purchases has only made the gaming community less open to switching to W8 without mentioning the miserable experience the UI offers. New casual gamers have no preexisting attitudes and are thus able to exist on W8 as they do not know better. :-/

That's hilarious, truly. Lock down purchases? You mean like Steam does? Anyone who rejects the idea of DRM-protected, download-only, unresellable software isn't using Steam in the first place. I know Gabe has complained about Windows 8, but he's complaining not because he has any principled objection: he's complaining because Windows 8 is muscling in on his turf.

Unsurprisingly, Safari remains totally dominant, up 0.46 points to 61.02 percent. Android has a firm hold on second place, down 0.64 points to 21.46 percent.

I find it interesting that the market share of Safari is 3 times higher than that of Android, despite the fact that Android handsets outsell iOS by at least an equivalent margin, if not more.

This suggests that people who buy Android devices, don't use them to surf the web - which must be disappointing for Google, considering their goal for Android is to serve you targeted advertising delivered via an Internet connection.

I think that statement is a bit premature. All those computers running pirated versions of XP won't be updated to Win 8 thanks to online activation. They'll be running pirated copies of Windows 7.

Now that you say that ... I'm not sure Windows 7 is going to meaningfully decline. We're still in the thick of the corporate adoption of Windows 7. Its use will only continue to rise as Windows 8 is not considered enterprise ready due to its quirks. Even consumer PCs are still being sold with Windows 7 broadly, and the current install base is enormous - making it less likely for Windows 8 to put a dent in the numbers.

Notice how Vista went away before XP, and XP stayed in the 70s of share even after Vista, until Windows 7 was released:

One thing jumped out, if Windows 8 tops out around 18% like Vista, it will barely top the non-Windows share, based on the slow growth of non-Windows. Also, the holiday numbers look off. Why on Earth would NT spike?

One thing jumped out, if Windows 8 tops out around 18% like Vista, it will barely top the non-Windows share, based on the slow growth of non-Windows. Also, the holiday numbers look off. Why on Earth would NT spike?

The footnote says NT is the catchall for all other versions of windows; presumably in November win8 didn't have enough share to get broken out separately. I'm not sure why it hasn't been done retroactively when Win8 did get a large enough share to get a column in December unless they didn't store the raw data needed to do so.